you inspire me!

NOTE: PLEASE CONTINUE TO EMAIL ME YOUR MOST INSPIRING STORIES, POEMS, QUOTES, SCRIPTURES ETC AND POST YOUR NAME IN THE PREVIOUS BLOG POST…WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

The other night I started setting aside my favorite images of the year to create an inspirational DVD Slideshow. A slideshow just for me…something that would encapsulate images and art that reminds me of why I love photography. Images that I liked from the year that have nothing to do with the business of photography and everything to do with the art of photography…and what inspires me most.

In doing this, I realized it was hard to cut out some of my favorites…and easy to cut out the ones that I am so self-critical of. Not the subjects, but my own work. I’m very hard on myself. I’m very picky.

Well, I ended up creating a collage of all of my FAVORITE images from the year…images that speak volumes to me. Images that remind me of moments in time this year that I captured exactly what I saw. Or exactly what I WANTED to see.

Sometimes the subject was looking at me. Sometimes the subject wasn’t aware of me. Sometimes the subject was trying to pose but then didn’t and I caught them "in between their pose"…the best pose in the world in my book.

These are images that speak…to ME as a photographer. Great memories…FOR ME.

While this doesn’t represent all of my sessions from the year (and please know that if you don’t find something from your session on here it only means I was looking at my own images from an "artists perspective" and not from a personal perspective), it does represent what I love most about photography:

beauty is TRULY in the eyes of the beholder. and THAT’S all that matters about art!

And so…here it is. I share with you the images that I loved capturing and finding and creating from the year 2006…images that speak to my heart and leave me hungering to pick up my camera once again.

(click to enlarge)

And if you were to ask me which image is my MOST favorite? Well…how about my favorite SIX? A single favorite is hard to pinpoint for me. Again, these are the images that speak to my heart and represent what I love to look for when I pick up my camera…ALL of the images above were narrowed from entire sessions and they are truly my favorites of favorites. But here are my TOP six faves:

Oh…okay. If you insist.

THIS is the IMAGE OF THE YEAR…painted in my memory…tucked away in my heart…forever:

LITTLE BALLERINA.

She makes you wonder what she’s so intrigued with. Her toes? Her dress? Is she on a ledge and looking down, afraid of the height? Probably not because she’s got a slight smile…a relaxed face. Not scared. Just mysterious. Pretty. Lovely.

She was caught "in between" the pose she thought we were working for. She was posing…having a ball…but THIS was the moment that spoke volumes to me…in an instant. Completely unaware of a camera in her "space". She quit posing for an "instant" because she was barefoot and her little feet were cold…and she didn’t want to step on any bugs!

Her eyelashes say it all. 

Happy New Year to everyone! I’ll post soon to announce the winner from the previous post…until then, keep emailing me and posting to that post! I’ve loved your stories and inspirations!